Cloud Atlas : A Novel

Rating:
Summary: Most enrapturing book since Wind-Up Bird Chronicles.
Review: "Cloud Atlas" is a great and dazzling novel.

Rating:
Summary: Wow
Review: A fabulous, gripping, utterly mind-bending experience. Actually had to slow down so I didn't finish it too fast, because then -- it would be over. Sniff. Exhilarting. Loved it, loved it, loved it. Most highly recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Overrated, but not unredeemable
Review: As other reviewers have pointed out, /Cloud Atlas/ features some sharp prose, suspenseful plotting, plausible characterization, and bold formal maneuverings. It is mainly on the last count that the novel ultimately fails. While Mitchell's stylistic channelings of a colonial journal, letters of a 1930s bisexual composer, and a corporate thriller work impressively well, his stabs at a senile british publisher, a korean slave-clone in a cyperpunkish future, and a postapocalyptic Hawaiian primitive are so bad they almost prevented me from finishing the book to find out what happens with the threads that I liked. The bottom line is that he can't do dialect, real or invented, nor can he coin sci-fi concepts without seeming laughably quaint and heavy-handedly moralistic (a computer is an "orison", non-cloned humans are "purebloods", implanted microchip-IDs are "souls," etc.). I am willing to go out on a limb and declare that the way Mitchell wraps-up the threads started earlier in the book make the three pathetic middle-chapters worth reading or at least skimming, but readers may find themselves thinking this book could've been beneficially trimmed-down in subsequent drafts before publication.

Rating:
Summary: a novel? not so sure about it....
Review: Cloud Atlas isn't your average novel. In fact, it could be argued that this is not a novel at all, more like a collection of 6 short stories, each about 80 pages in lenght and each sharing the same overarching theme: slavery. Ok, there is a thin red line connecting every tale but don't see too much in it, really, it's more a clever narrative touch than anything else (still, some reviewers noted that, supposedly, this expedient is used to suggest that there is only one main character in the novel, and the 6 tales merely depict his various incarnations, in different times and places). Oh, talking about narrative expedients: I thought that the idea of splitting every story in two halves and putting them at diffent ends of the book was quite pointless. And: the central story (I mean, the tale that lies at the centre of the book) is written in an awful dialect, full of elisions that render the whole text unreadable.
But enough with the criticism: Mitchell crafted a niece piece of prose and the stories are very engaging (again, I cannot vouch for the central one because I didn't read it but in either case 5 out of 6 ain't a bad deal....), so much so that I practically devoured them! Now I'm waiting for his next work!

Rating:
Summary: a whole new spin on storytelling
Review: i hesitated before buying this book feeling it looked rather intellectual and 'experimental' . How could a story that starts in the the mid nineteenth century and finishes there via 1930's Belgium, 1970's LA , 1980's Britain , a Korean superstate of the near future and the end of history itself. be coherent ? How could a novel with 6 very distinct narrators and with six apparently different stories possibly not lose the plot ? (excuse the pun )
Well what seemed like a gimmick turns out to be incredibly compelling and entertaining . Entertaining is not a word you'd expect to be associated with any work fiction that plays with form so much (ulysees is hardly a barrel of laughs ) but mitchell pulls it off because he has a sense of humor, as well as a good old fashioned sense of what makes a good story .Each of the tales that make up Cloud Atlas is great in it's own right and each has it's own mood - from very funny to heartbreaking to terrifying. In a way part of what cloud atlas is about is what is a story and why are tales so important to our culture and in the end, what happens when we start to lose language and history itself ? Isn't that in the end what the 'end of history' means ?
Mitchell has been compared to Murakami but to me having lived in asia like mitchell , he is far more european in his storytelling (indeed he pastiches several genres during the course of the book , from literary fiction through science fiction).
Once again the Man Booker Prize jury proved just what useless bunch they are by denying it victory . It's quite clearly not only the best book of the year, but one of the top 10 books in the English language in the last five years. The word classic is bandied about like so much confetti these days but cloud atlas could well turn out to be exactly that.

Rating:
Summary: An epic in bite-sized pieces
Review: I picked up this novel in a bookstore in Canada, and was struck at first by the great design of the book, then by the 'concept'; six stories interweave with each other throughout history. You get the first half of each 'novella' in the first part of the book, then wrap around to their conclusions in the second half. The writing is terrific and really captures the different styles/language of the varied characters. I absolutely recommend this book as a great escapist adventure, but also with smart ideas about history flowing into the future and where that leaves us in the present.

Rating:
Summary: Contrived
Review: If the writer stuck to the first three story lines this would have gotten a better rating. Unfortunately the middle sections, where everything 'came together' seemed contrived at best. I skimmed over the Korean ultra-capitalist section. It seemed to have some promise but was cut short. The Hawaii section at the end of human kind would have been interesting if the dialect the writer tried to use wasn't so obtuse. A half a page of 'dialect' is hard to read, dozens are not worth the effort.

Rating:
Summary: Big, Bold and Complex
Review: Mitchell is getting better with every book!
As many reviewers mentioned, this is not (always) an easy read. Especially the post-apocalyptic part (in my opinion the only weak bit) is a bit of a pain because of the spelling.
But all in all the story is simply breathtaking. If ideas, scope and breadth had weight, you couldn't pick up the book.
Invest some time and read it. It's more than worth it.

If you like this, check out 'Cryptonomicon' by Neal Stephenson.

Rating:
Summary: Loved this book but not for everyone
Review: This goes down as one of my favorite books of the year.

Story in a nutshell (without spoilers):

Cloud Atlas consists of 6 [slightly] interlinking stories, told from the viewpoint of 6 different individuals at different points in time. The first story consists of the letters of Adam Ewing, and his fateful trip on a ship in the Pacific in the mid 1850's.

From there we go to the second story, which takes place in the 1930's and is told from the viewpoint of Robert Frobisher, a talented disinherited muscial composer who visits an infirm maestro and his family in an attempt to get work and advantage. His story is told through his letters to a scientist friend/lover named Rufus Sixsmith.

The next story takes place in the 1970's, and has to do with reporter Luisa Rey, and her exposure of corporate malfeasance that could result in disaster. Sixsmith is a scientist there, and plays an important part of the story.

Next, (and my personal favorite), is the story of Timothy Cavendish, in present day England, and the tale of his (mis) adventures as a book publisher. Utterly hilarious and poignant.

The second to last story becomes a sci/fi read of future corporate controlled Korea, complete with cloned humans. And the final story is one that takes place in post apocalyptic Hawaii.

And then we go back to each story, in opposite order, and put the pieces together and complete the cliffhanger endings from the first half.

I think this book is brilliant. I often found myself rereading various sections because I found them so ingenius and profound. I think David Mitchell is one of the most talented new writers around.

My only complaint? Sometimes I think that the author was a bit taken with his own writing, and was too clever for his own good. At points the writing became tedious, although never to the point that I wanted to throw in the towel.

Note...I personally had trouble getting through chapter one, but then I was hooked by chapter two. If you find yourself getting impatient, hang in there.

Highly recommended, with the reservations expressed above.

Rating:
Summary: A Masterpiece
Review: To read Cloud Atlas is to re-read it. One reading is not enough, and you will find yourself starting it over at the beginning once you've turned the last page. It is one of the best books I've ever read. Cloud Atlas is unique in scope and depth. It's a profound look at our world today even though the interwoven stories span centuries, from the mid-1800s to the distant future. A challenging read but well worth every moment.